Wednesday, February 25, 2015

Six Post-Soviet Countries Now Say They Were Occupied by the USSR

Paul
Goble

Staunton, February 25 – Today,
Georgians marked the 94th anniversary of what Tbilisi calls “the
battle of the Soviet Occupation” of that country in 1921, a self-definition
that means six post-Soviet states now officially view the Soviet system as an
occupation and one that marks an important milestone in their separation from
Russia and possible future development.

Estonians, Latvians and Lithuanians and
their supporters in the West always viewed Soviet power in the three as an
illegal occupation. That was the source of both the West’s non-recognition
policy and their efforts a quarter of a century ago that led to the restoration
of their independence.

Moldovans also view their inclusion
in the USSR as an occupation, with many of them arguing that they were the “fourth”
victim of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact and should be viewed as such. And
Azerbaijanis, official and unofficial alike, trace their current statehood back
to the Democratic Republic of Azerbaijan that was occupied by Soviet forces
early on.

Such self-identifications are
important both because they underscore the commitment of these peoples not to
allow that to happen again but also and perhaps even more because they open the
way to the kind of developments economic and political that happened in Eastern
Europe when the Soviet occupation of that region ended.

Indeed, many analysts there and in
the West have suggested that one of the major reasons that Eastern Europe,
including the three Baltic states, has been more successful in overcoming the
communist past is precisely because its peoples viewed communism less as an integral
part of their national lives than as a foreign occupation they were only too happy to
throw off.

To the extent that Georgia and
Moldova and potentially other former non-Russian Soviet republics move in that
direction as well then not only will make the restoration of any
Moscow-centered empire far more difficult but will also open the way to a
better future, something that Western governments should take note of.

The Day of Soviet Occupation was
first marked officially in Georgia five years ago when the parliament voted to
commemorate “the hundreds of thousands of victims of political repressions of the
Communist occupation regime” (agenda.ge/news/30346/eng).

Georgian Prime Minister Irakli
Garibashvili said that February 25, 1921, was “one of the most tragic days in
the history of the country” because the ensuing 70-year-long Soviet occupation
had “devastating effects” on Georgia and required Georgians to make enormous
sacrifices to recover their independence.

"Despite the communist ideology
and the regime,” he added, “the idea of freedom and striving for independence
has never vanished in people; their struggle for freedom has never been
suspended. Today Georgia is an independent country and it is the result of the
devotion of many generations. Our responsibility is to protect this great
legacy.”